A federal district court in Wyoming on Tuesday struck down tough U.S. Department of the Interior rules related to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of oil and gas wells in the United States. The court ruling stymies implementation of the rules that were set to take effect on Friday.
In his ruling the judge said that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had no congressional authority to issue the regulations and pointed to fracking controls already in force under other state and federal statutes.
The BLM rules would have applied only to drilling on federal lands, which comprise about 10% of all U.S. fracking activity. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in March 2015 that it was the department’s hope that these rules would be adopted by states that had no rules for fracking.
Another major obstacle is the so-called Halliburton loophole written into the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Then Vice-President Dick Cheney, who had been CEO at Halliburton before being elected to office in 2000, led a Bush administration Energy Task Force that specifically recommended to exempt fracking from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, first enacted in 1974 and amended and reauthorized twice since.
The court’s ruling is far from final. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals is also reviewing the Interior Department rules, and regardless of the outcome there an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court seems likely.
According to a report in The New York Times, a spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America applauded the Wyoming court’s ruling:
Today’s decision demonstrates B.L.M.’s efforts are not needed and that states are – and have for over 60 years been – in the best position to safely regulate hydraulic fracturing.
A spokeswoman for the Interior Department countered:
It’s unfortunate that implementation of the rule continues to be delayed, because it prevents regulators from using 21st century standards to ensure that oil and gas operations are conducted safely and responsibly on public and tribal lands.
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